Posted: March 20, 2012 at 5:28 am
What Lies Beneath
A new commenter here showed up to defend Neil Livingstone. S/he said Livingstone’s sex tourism advice made him more electable because it demonstrated his business “savvy.” Then s/he made another ridiculous statement: that there were more oil rigs in North Dakota because “corporations will choose to do business in a state like North Dakota over a state like Montana due to the corporate tax issue.”
The statement is utterly false, but that hasn’t stopped the GOP candidates from repeating variations on it ad nauseum. Today, Governor Brian Schweitzer called them out on their lies. Schweitzer said ”that Republican candidates for governor, who he referred to as ‘jokers,’ are wrong to blame taxes and regulations,” for differing oil development levels in Montana and North Dakota the AP reports.
There are more oil wells North Dakota because there is more oil there to drill. According to Montana Department of Commerce Energy Production and Development Division statistics, Montana’s taxes related to oil and gas production are 40-50% lower than in North Dakota. Our state also has a faster permitting process than both North Dakota and Wyoming. Montana permits are out in 60 days on average. In Wyoming a permit takes ten months. It takes a year in North Dakota.
Anyway, there’s some serious backpedaling going on in the article.
One of Rick Hill’s biggest flubs in the piece was arguing that oil development is hindered by the high cost of workers’ compensation insurance in Montana. The current work comp system was crafted while Hill was chair of the workers compensation board. Hill used to brag about creating the system, until it got out what a disaster it was for businesses. At that point, Hill tried to scrub his involvement in the debacle from his Wikipedia page.
Right now there are more unemployed Montanans looking for work today than there were a year ago. Our unemployment rate has drifted up over the course of this year, not down.”
-Rick Hill, Montana Public Radio, 11/21/11“If you ask the outside business groups, what they say about Montana is that we are really interested in investing in Montana, they have a great workforce, work ethic, and a lot of natural resources, there is a lot of potential in Montana. But it is an unstable political regulatory and legal environment for us to make a substantial investment.”
-Rick Hill, Hometown Helena, 6/2/11“The governor has influence, we need to show the rest of the world we are open for business, we need to show the businesses we are not hostile compared to our neighbors.”
-Corey Stapleton, Yellowstone County Young Republican Debate, 2/9/12“We have got to become friendly to those that create the jobs, Montana has not had a great reputation for that.”
-Ken Miller, Liberate Main Street, Billings Event, 10/31/11“My only criticism has been to the governor. It has been that here we are that Montana has this reputation of being anti-business, anti-natural resources development, we cannot seem to get our coal developed. We are behind North Dakota and Wyoming, and the first thing is big bad business.”
-Ken Miller, Voices of Montana, Northern Broadcasting 7/14/11
No need for facts when you got faith! As long as the morons BELEIVE with their hearts, it’ll SEEM like the truth! All we need is CEEment JAYsus! You see, the jokers are appealing to the morons out there that do NOT believe facts. Facts are an insidious liberal plot. Like evilution! See below.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/dennis-terry-rick-santorum_n_1364414.html
DOMINION over the earth, baby! User up! Thas what JAYsus wants!
The Holy Roman Kiddy Diddlers get their comeuppance! Too bad the Bishnuts don’t keep their damn fatass noses outta contraception! Seems that they’ve got enuff problems of their OWN to deal with at the moment, and their attempts at deflection ain’t workin’ so well!
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120320/NEWS01/203200305/Catholic-Diocese-Helena-agrees-mediation-sexual-abuse-cases?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage
This claim by hill is right up there with the lie that making mt a ‘right to work’ state wil Boston the economy. We don’t need to be in a race to the bottom.
Boston – boost damn auto correct
The notion that Rick Hill “turned around” the work comp system, as he still touts on his website, by charging MT businesses the most expensive rates in the country(something he doesn’t mention) is hardly something to be proud of. I’m sure businesses in Montana aren’t being told that the fix comes from their pocketbooks.
Came across a good quote for all the christofascists running:
‘You put your hand on the Bible, and swear to uphold the Constitution.
You don’t put your hand on the Constitution, and swear to uphold the Bible”!
MT unemployment rate in Nov 2010 = 7%; in Nov 2011 = 6.7% (currently 6.5%). The Tax Foundation lists MT as the 8th best place in the US to do business.
Rick Hill’s backpedalling on the Bakken is pretty funny. Now he concedes that yes, the geology indicates there’s more oil in North Dakota, and yes, our taxes aren’t that much different….but we aren’t permitting gravel pits fast enough to build roads to set up drill pads!
I know the fine folks in Montana DEQ Open Cut Program are working like beavers trying to permit those pits….so if the process is too slow, we can either (1) repeal the open cut law; or (2) hire more people to process permits.
Alternative 1 ain’t gonna happen, as too many Republicans live next to gravel pits, and while they hate the dadgum environmentalists, they turn into fervent environmentalists when its NOT IN MY BACKYARD! Alternative 2 makes sense….but that means INCREASING THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT! Oh, what’s a pointy-headed Republican to do???
I’m sorry, but if Republican’s really believed that the biggest economic challenge facing Montana was a lack of gravel, they would have been saying so from the beginning. Either these bozos are too stupid to know what’s up in terms of economic development, or they are deliberately misleading voters in order to win big tax breaks for Exxon Mobile et al at the expense of middle class working people.
It’s both!
Gov. Schweitzer just retweeted this:
http://helenair.com/news/opinion/citizens-unite-over-citizens-united-decision/article_eb88aed6-70bc-11e1-b0dd-001871e3ce6c.html
That’s good news. The Washington Post has a 2016 presidential bracket that you can vote in for presidential picks. Schweitzer is in the mix but MT is up against NY state so they are ahead of us in votes (18 million people and all).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/welcome-to-the-sweet-2016/2012/03/19/gIQAhd8bNS_blog.html
First of all, good post. Second, how much it sounds like group effort, checking sources, cooperating with governor’s staff.
Again, Cowgirl, they used to advertise your enticing mammaries, but you do not exist.
Always important in politics to try and keep your eye on the ball. cowgirl is an avatar designed to keep the blog rabble in the faith.
You’re like a rash, max bucks.
Nah, not a rash, LK. What Buttinski reminds me of is my poor old dog. The poor fella has anal problems of some type, so he constantly drags his ass on the floor. Buttinski drags his sorry ass across the BLOGS! And he don’t give a crap who sees it!
AH Poor lil Buttarski, He can’t lie about taxes anymore. Anyone who used to use you as a CPA must have been a crook or Naive.
This bullshit is from a Democrat party press release. Party talking points isn’t going to help you explain to people why you sent their jobs to china and williston. the reign of the Demorats is over!
No it is called fact, Robert ole boy. Something, your party failed to do for you as a constituent, is tell the truth. Stop watching fox and listening to BS — time to grow up!
I don’t know where you’re from pal, but here in the real world FACTS don’t come from a Democrat press release.
AHHHHH Robert, It is an Associated Press Story! Not a lie, but what you are saying is!
What about the Montana Department of Commerce Energy Production and Development Division statistics. Are they lies also.
And where is the link to this Democratic Press release…. that cowgirl didn’t post, but you say its here? Wheres the Link Robert?
Those are the real facts…. and you came here with the intention of either being lied too, by a GOP Operative…. Or lying yourself!
Like I said before…. grow up
Ooooooo boy! We got a LIVE one! Brain dead, but live! You’re a funny dude, Bobby.
Suspiciously, the Democrat Party doesn’t post all of their propaganda memo’s on their website. http://www.montanademocrats.org/releases How convenient when they want to hide the truth. If you want a link call on them to exhibit some transparency. Don’t hold your breath.
Hey, thanks for the link, Bobo!
Lets go over this again GOP. I wouldn’t want you to lose those pesky little facts, of why I and other Democrats are running against you!
1980: Ronald Reagan runs for president, promising a balanced budget
1981 – 1989: With support from congressional Republicans, Reagan runs enormous deficits, adds $2 trillion to the debt.
1993: Bill Clinton passes economic plan that lowers deficit, gets zero votes from congressional Republicans.
1998: U.S. deficit disappears for the first time in three decades. Debt clock is unplugged.
2000: George W. Bush runs for president, promising to maintain a balanced budget.
2001: CBO shows the United States is on track to pay off the entirety of its national debt within a decade.
2001 – 2009: With support from congressional Republicans, Bush runs enormous deficits, adds nearly $5 trillion to the debt.
2002: Dick Cheney declares, “Deficits don’t matter.” Congressional Republicans agree, approving tax cuts, two wars, and Medicare expansion without even trying to pay for them.
2009: Barack Obama inherits $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush; Republicans immediately condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.
2009: Congressional Democrats unveil several domestic policy initiatives — including health care reform, cap and trade, DREAM Act — which would lower the deficit. GOP opposes all of them, while continuing to push for deficit reduction.
September 2010: In Obama’s first fiscal year, the deficit shrinks by $122 billion. Republicans again condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.
October 2010: S&P endorses the nation’s AAA rating with a stable outlook, saying the United States looks to be in solid fiscal shape for the foreseeable future.
November 2010: Republicans win a U.S. House majority, citing the need for fiscal responsibility.
December 2010: Congressional Republicans demand extension of Bush tax cuts, relying entirely on deficit financing. GOP continues to accuse Obama of fiscal irresponsibility.
March 2011: Congressional Republicans declare intention to hold full faith and credit of the United States hostage — a move without precedent in American history — until massive debt-reduction plan is approved.
July 2011: Obama offers Republicans a $4 trillion debt-reduction deal. GOP refuses, pushes debt-ceiling standoff until the last possible day, rattling international markets.
August 2011: S&P downgrades U.S. debt, citing GOP refusal to consider new revenues. Republicans rejoice and blame Obama for fiscal irresponsibility.
There have been several instances since the mid 1990s in which I genuinely believed Republican politics couldn’t possibly get more blisteringly ridiculous. I was wrong; they just keep getting worse. Thanks to Steve Benen for this list!
Yellow Journalism is apparently alive and well in the form of the “Montana Cowgirl Blog.” First of all, I am a “she,” not a person of ambiguous sexuality like the character Pat on Saturday Night Live. As I made clear in my prior posts, I am not interested in party politics and fighting over issues and candidates for the sake of fighting and grandstanding. I am interested, however, in the economic well-being of this state and I humbly asked my esteemed fellow commenters for their input on how we can make Montana competitive in order to attract industry and jobs in this state. My fellow commenters and I actually ended the thread by having a lovely and productive discourse on making the world a better place through coming up with “out of the box” solutions to what seemed to be insurmountable problems.
I refuse to believe that the reason that Montana is not competitive in the job production arena with, say, North Dakota, is that Montana doesn’t have the natural resource wealth that North Dakota has. Instead of slinging mud, why don’t we put our heads together and figure out a solution to the REAL PROBLEM that is unemployment and poverty in our state. Statistics are statistics, but the reality is that most of our next-door neighbors are SUFFERING AND NEED JOBS. They need jobs in Montana and not North Dakota, where they are currently having to go for work.
Further, my comments on Neil Livingstone and the advice in his book (which appears to be a manual for safely traveling/working overseas) seek to underscore that expats (Americans working for American corporations overseas) have a tendency to, stupidly, pick up cheap and available local prostitutes and get robbed or kidnapped or worse in the process. I worked in human resources and risk management for a U.S. company’s overseas headquarters. Constantly at issue was how to protect our employees (and the company which inevitably ended up paying for the employees’ stupidity) from risks associated with being an easy target for “vice” in foreign countries. Bury your heads in the sand all you want, but prostitution, though incredibly distasteful, is a reality and corporations have to deal with this issue when sending workers abroad. It is standard operating procedure for American companies to train their expat employees in avoiding the risks associated with foreign prostitution. Mr. Livingstone, from what I understand, is quite the expert in international risk abatement and his warnings on the subject are PLAIN COMMON SENSE. He states explicitly that he does not condone such behavior.
“I refuse to believe that the reason that Montana is not competitive in the job production arena with, say, North Dakota, is that Montana doesn’t have the natural resource wealth that North Dakota has”
I realise that science is hard for people of faith to understand, but the science is pretty clear on this issue. Whether you believe it or not, the geological science (which many have already pointed out with links to factual information) is pretty clear. The fact that you refuse to believe it simply invalidates any cognascent argument. You have decided what the truth is and therefore anything anyone has to say will go right past you. That is the very definition of yellow journalism.
” He states explicitly that he does not condone such behavior.”
I hear ya, InContext! Thas why Neil was PHOTOGRAPHED on that ship full of hookers! Smiling from ear to ear! With a drink in his hand and a big ceegar in the other! And a shit-eatin’ grin! As if he just laid that ENTIRE boatload of hookers!
Oh wait. My bad. Seems that he SRUBBED that pic from his bio! Sorry. My bad.
BWHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41666602/
Montana ranks #46 in “business friendliness.” North Dakota ranks #9. In order to court investors into the state, we need to be perceived by CEOs as a “business friendly” state. If CEOs think we aren’t business friendly but believe that our next door neighbor North Dakota IS business friendly, where do you think they will choose to invest, all other things being equal? Our next governor needs to be someone who has business “cred,” who can make whatever changes need to be made to improve our dismal “business friendliness” ranking and who can lobby and convince investors that locating their businesses in Montana is a smart business decision.
Jack Dalrymple is a prostitute courting wholesale earth hatred and defying workplace safety while attracting the lowest common denominator to work the patch; Governor Schweitzer is not.
It would be encouraging to see unions encouraged in the oil patch and coal fields where membership would buy health care insurance and take it out of the hands of the employers who could impose religious restrictions on coverage.
Sorry “InContext” I believe you wrong!I am pretty amazed that CNBC has decided to go with this list. Without giving up the name of the study/s! No explanations of the terms they categorize, Like what makes a business friendly. So a hobbyist statistician like me cant crunch any numbers, to see if they are right.
But let us see whats states we should be beating with your logic shall we! We are 25th in the nation, in the cost of a business to operate. So we are figuring business costs at: Raw inventory in finished product out, taxes,shipping costs, insurance, employee cost etc. All the costs a business has as a result of doing business…. Right?
Well hell that makes us better then, Maine,Kansas,Pennsylvania,Michigan,Colorado,Mississippi,Delaware,Texas,Wyoming,Nevada,New Mexico,New Hampshire,Arizona,Maryland,Florida,Massachusetts,Vermont,Washington,New Jersey,Connecticut,Rhode Island,California,New York,Alaska, and Hawaii. Whats not business friendly about that Bud????
Your logic is only pinned at stopping regulations, and keeping people safe. We are better at doing business then half of the nation is already… and where it counts… in costs! Stop embarrassing yourself with this less regulation BS! We need to be telling business in the aforementioned states that we can do cost control better then half the nation. Our state is in the black, and we wont need to raise costs anytime soon.
Nothing is broke here law wise, stop trying to fix it!
If nothing is broke, we still have a PR problem in that the general “perception” is that we are not business friendly. We at least need a good PR program to reverse the perception and a business-savvy governor with corporate “street cred” could certainly help matters. I would love to hear everybody’s ideas for how we can create well-paying jobs in this state so that we can put our people to work. I am all ears–really–
This I agree too. Brian has been doing what the GOP has refused to do for years… promote our state…. and he really didn’t start to do it correctly until the last four years of his term.
We Also have to start to getting rid of the “BAT Crazy thinking” that demeans this state, and start looking towards improving our Image on both sides. Sadly, The GOP has a hell of a lot of work to do on their end.
We have to show a united force in finding the state, Companies and Jobs that Mirror or constitutional values on clean water and air.
I would think there is alot to offer here. but lets not go all mine and oil happy… Nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States outside Alaska isn’t producing any oil or gas, federal records show this, ever since the Bush administration started pushing for more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development.
An Associated Press computer analysis of Bureau of Land Management records found that 80 percent of federal lands leased for oil and gas production in Wyoming are producing no oil or gas. Neither are 83 percent of the leased acres in Montana, 77 percent in Utah, 71 percent in Colorado, 36 percent in New Mexico and 99 percent in Nevada.
The mining and Oil companies are lying to us, they are only using leases, which companies can lock up for 10 years with annual rents of only $2 to $3 an acre, as assets that can make debt refinancing easier while also attracting potential investors.
It is clear, the Public is getting duped by the republicans like Rehberg who keep screaming we need to drill more… but they shouldn’t be saying this to Obama. Rehberg, should be saying this to the very companies that keep contributing to his campaign. Yeah Rehberg knows he is Lying… we have to be call out people like this every day!
@incontext: while you were whining last night on this blog about how Montana is a bad state to do business in, one of the biggest oil executives in the country was in Billings giving a speech, saying the complete opposite, lauding the business climate here. his company is drilling oil in eastern montana, and the compay is minting money and creating thousands of jobs. how do you figure? how can you be correct, if he is correct?
And, Cowgirl, you misquoted me. You are obviously more interested in sensationalistic headlines than you are in the truth. I did not say that the chapter of Mr. Livingstone’s book at issue (a common-sense manual on how to avoid trouble when doing business overseas) made him more electable because it demonstrated his business savvy. I said: “I think that a savvy international businessman such as Neil [Livingstone] would have the wherewithal and background to bring this state into the international economy.” Mr. Livingstone’s impressive resume sufficiently demonstrates his business “savvy.” Whether you like Mr. Livingstone or not–and he is a controversial figure–you can’t deny that he has a proven record of successfully interfacing with the most powerful people in the world. He does not seem to be a “go along to get along” kinda guy–quite the opposite. Montana would benefit from a leader with courage and backbone who doesn’t shy away from controversy but rather has the guts to get things done (in an intelligent and reasoned fashion), regardless of whose toes get stepped on in the process. That’s just this girl’s opinion–
Livingscam is a dipshit. We don’t NEED a phony dipshit for governor. He’s a novelty candidate, kinda like Pastord Bulbdim. Well, in fact, ALL the Pubbie candidates this time are novelty candidates except for maybe Stumblebum. It’s a freak show. If the Pubbies had ANY sense, they’d elect Stumblebum in the primary. But they won’t. You can bet on that.
I have to agree with Larry, Livingston stories about places he has been and things he has seen are likely alot of exaggeration. Secondly he takes too many stands with the tea party! a lot of that crap is verifiable nonsense! No Livingston would not be a good pick for this state.
Is there anyone running for governor who isn’t a dipshit, Larry? Just curious who you would like to see in office–
Did you read the above? I suggested that Corey Stapleton is about the closest thing the Pubbies have to a traditional candidate.
Hill, washed up coporate pimp, whoremonger, and dude badly in need of another gubmint job!
Miller, extreme uneducated religeeious fundiwackmentalist moroon!
Livingscam, CLAIMS to have his OWN CIA, dines with hookers, and the world’s leading dickatater extractor! Too funny.
Pastord Bulbdim, racist outta state nutjob!
Whom did I overlook?
Yes, Corey Stumblebum is indeed the only dude with a chance. I think he’s smart, likeable, but most of all relatively STABEL when compared to the freak show!
OOPS! I meant “stable”.
http://intelligentdiscontent.com/2012/03/20/breaking-down-the-republican-field-of-candidates-for-governor/